I just got my teofl score I'm so happy

[StuffedFrog]

So I took the test on Oct 27th and just this morning I got my result. It was quiet nerve-racking for me to click on the "view score" because I really did not know what to expect. And then the scores showed up. I got 104!

Reading: 26

Listening: 25

Speaking 24

Writing 29

 

I am on cloud nine right now. This is the best score I have ever got (well, given that this is my 2nd attempt). I got 94 in my first TOEFL test in 2011. And now I got 104. So as you can see this is a big progress for me. I am so happy. I will share some of my experience for the test.

 

My preparation: I did not spend 100% of my time and effort on the preparation for the test, obviously. I enrolled in a TOEFL class in school in May and the class ended in August. I was about to register for the September test, however I did not feel so confident so I self-studied for one more month with my own materials. During the time I was in that class, I literally studied for the class not for me. I completed the assignments but spent no time to practice more on my own. In the one month that I self-studied, I also slacked off in the first two weeks. I don't know what I was thinking. I spent more time playing Sim City and Plants vs Zombies than studying for TOEFL. That was such a self-deprecating time for me, since I did not feel content with what I was doing, my mood was erratic and I just turned my back on everybody.

 

For the materials that I studied with, I only use the Delta's Key 6 Practice Tests and the 24 TPOs from ETS. These materials also gave me a hard time due to their discrepancies.

The DK's practice tests could be the easiest TOEFL book ever (this can be a bit overgeneralized since I do not study other books :p) I always got 26 or more in the reading and listening. These good scores however made me question my real ability when I came to the 24 TPOs. the score dropped significantly to 24 in my reading. I freaked out. Yet I do not have time to find other books since it was only 2 weeks left til the real test. So I just endured with the TPOs and tried to extremely focus on each section. I was hoping to get at least 100. That's all I was asking for since I was too desperate.

 

The test:

Reading: I got 3 readings, none was my favorite subject. I got 60 minutes to finish all through 3 readings. This is different from the TPO since in the TPO, they have 1 reading for 20 mins and give an instruction for 2 more readings in 40 minutes, so at least you'll have some time to brace yourself. I was quiet tense during the whole time. You know, same old feeling when you take the test and the questions are unfamiliar to you. I feel so good that I got 26 in reading. Last time I took toefl, I only got 23.

 

Listening: I got the extensive listening part!! Yes. I had to listen to 1 more part (1 conversation, 2 lectures), which turned out to be somewhat my safeguard. I was pretty sure i did not do well in the 2nd part of the listening. So when I saw they gave me another one, I just seized my chance and tried to put all my effort into this one. After the test I just keep praying they would omit the 2nd part and do the scoring on the 3rd part instead. Of course I did not know how they did it, but I got 25. I guess that's the best score then. Sadly, I also got 25 the last time I took TOEFL test. So it'l like, I did not make any headway in my listening! LOL.

 

Speaking: I feel quite confident in my American accent. However maybe because it was the way I delivered my thoughts to answer the questions, I only got the high level in "speaking about campus situation" (4-5), the rest are only fair (3-2) :sad: Anyway this score is wayyy too good compared with my 22 in speaking in the last toefl test. My advice for the speaking is that you guys should watch more American TV series. I dig How I met Your Mother, Glee, Underemployed, etc. They are a good source for you to imitate their intonation and accent. Or you can watch some youtube channels such as thefinebros- the "Kids and Teens React to" series. They can be very helpful if you want to listen to American voice. Strangely enough, I don't recommend listening to academic or scientific stuff like those in National Geographic or Discovery Channel. You can try them with the listening practice, not the speaking one. Since my goal is to have as near an American accent as possible, I just listen to what makes me feel comfortable. As long as you feel comfortable listening to the stuff you like, you'll absorb in the way to have that kind of accent naturally. So I got 24 instead of 22 in the last test.

 

Writing: This is undoubtedly my biggest achievement so far. I went from 24 to 29 in writing. And I have to affirm you guys that : word count counts!!!!!! I got more than 300 words in the integrated writing and the exact 634 words in the independent writing. I think I nailed the first one, yet I did not feel so confident in the latter. I digressed a lot. My topic is the one I believe, appears somewhere (or similar to that) in one of the TPOs. "In university, you benefit just as much with student groups, club, organization as with the academic studies." So overall you have to state whether you agree or not with this statement and give reasons. I agree. I said joining extra activities will give you more chance to broaden your network, which leads you to new opportunities; moreover it will give you a chance to stay away from school stuff, to relax since you can do what you like in you student group. But I got distracted a lot. I wrote long sentences and made me idea incomprehensible. My examples were too subjective too.

 

Yet I have one more thing that I think saved my essay. My rebuttal. So after writing my two paragraphs for the two ideas, I wrote a rebuttal about how student groups can affect one's study if he is too committed to it. I got about 10 minutes left for the rebuttal and the conclusion. In the rebuttal, you refuted the ideas you have been arguing for, yet in the end of that paragraph, you will have to confirm again the validity of your argument. So I said as long as students are prudent enough to balance between school work and hobbies, extra activities can still benefit them a big deal, etc. I was running with time. I got less than 1 minute to review my essay and correct the mistakes if any. That means I could only correct the grammatical mistakes, not the ones in my ideas so that would be more dangerous if I could not express my ideas well.

 

And you know it. I got the level "good" (4-5) in both writing parts. I think it's partly because of my word counts. When I practice writing at home, I always get from 550 and more, so having 634 is not new to me. Yet the score I got is totally astonishing for me. So again you guys, your word count counts. Mark my words!

 

And that's it for my TOEFL experience. I'm so glad it's all over now. With this result, I can proudly apply to any school abroad I want after I graduate. I wanna say thank you for all of you have have been reading this thread and also you creators who made this forum. Coming to this forum inspired me a lot with all of you guys' good scores. It gives me more strength and belief to do good in my test. And It did. Thank you. :)